Carolina Hurricanes Push Back with Tough Game against Nashville

Carolina Hurricanes keep grabbing up points in a busy week.

The Canes beat the Nashville Predators tonight 4-2.  The Carolina Hurricanes are rolling down the stretch of this busy five-game week with at least gaining a point in each game.  The Canes are also on a 6 game point streak with 10 of a possible 12 points of late.  Much like we pointed out in the pregame article:

"Will the Carolina Hurricanes win tonight?  Well like I’ve said before they shouldn’t so they most likely will just to spite us.  Maybe Ron Francis is planning on bundling his top pick to someone for an NHL ready player so the lower it is the less loss of value.  Still, a higher up pick is worth more than a lower one."

The Hurricanes just keep making a good attempt of ending up with a 12^th or 13^th pick in the 1^st round of this year’s draft.

Related Story: Will Ryan Murphy be Exposed to Vegas?

Players I Watched

With Philip DiGiuesse back from his upper-body injury I was watching his energy level.  I thought his 1^st  period was not so good but by the 2^nd he was back in game shape.   He also has a really good attempt in the 2^nd but was robbed by Nashville’s goalie Juuse Saros.

By the 3^rd PDG was playing more physical and forechecking well.  Although he only played around 8:30 mins. he did finish with a 52.9% Corsi percentage for the game.  A satisfying complete game from PDG.

Victor Rask has also played at a high level all this week and I was wondering if he would keep it up.  Rask kept the offensive onslaught going but just could find the back of the net.  He did have one of his classic drive moves towards the net in the 2^nd.  Nashville made a point of giving him a hard time tonight and I believe was because of his play lately drew more defensive focus on him.  That showed up in the 3

Nashville made a point of giving him a hard time tonight and I believe was because of his play lately drew more defensive focus on him.  That showed up in the 3^rd when he dished out that real bad penalty to Ryan Ellis.  If Rask wants to be a top line player for the Canes he will need to learn how to deal with all the pressure.

The Game:

What a heck of a start for the Hurricanes with Jordan Staal scoring just 29 seconds in when he tips Jaccob Slavin’s shot from the blue line.

Midway through the period, the Hurricanes strike again with Lee Stempniak finding Jeff Skinner with a dandy, Canes up 2-0.

The Predators were really taking it to the Hurricanes much of the second but only got this one from Viktor Arvidsson.  What a real bad bounce on that one for Lack who seals off the side of the net but the puck deflects off his stick and through the five hole for a goal.

The second could have gone a lot worse for the Canes if it wasn’t for Eddie Lack getting over the goal real quick.

Although being outplayed most of the period the Hurricanes Jeff Skinner finds a way to put some distance between the teams with his 2^nd goal of the night.

Down the stretch:

The Hurricanes came out in the 3^rd period on fire.  For the first twelve minutes or more the Canes were taking it to the Preds.  Then, Carolina goes on the defensive and lets Nashville take the offense play to Eddie Lack.  With less than a 2 minutes left with an empty net Predators Filip Forsberg pulls Nashville within one.

It’s hard to believe that the Washington Capitals traded Forsberg away for Martin Erat! The drama doesn’t stop there when after the goal Victor Rask does the unthinkable and draws a penalty with a real bad slash to Predators Ryan Ellis.  With the tension in the PNC Arena at a feverish pitch, Elias Lindholm breaks the ice with an empty-netter at 19:34 to seal the game.

Final Words:

The Carolina Hurricanes win a hard fought game, against a better team in the Nashville Predators.  The Hurricanes offense did a great job but even with them getting all the credit in the 3 stars this writer disagrees.

Eddie Lack won this game for the Canes.  Coach Bill Peters is looking at himself in the mirror and thinking “I have created a Monster.”  Eddie was lights out again for the Hurricanes and I don’t believe that Cam Ward would have been able to pull this game out.  Eddie finished the game with 27-29 shots and a .931% save percentage.

Next: Is Eric Staal the Greatest Hurricane?

Jeff Skinner played the game like a man on a mission and his line with Ryan, Stempniak lead the Canes all night long. The line all finished about 55% Corsi % and deserves all the hardware for the night.

In the end, the Carolina Hurricanes have a chance to finish off this week tomorrow against the Philadelphia Flyers and have their Best Week Ever, well for this season at least.  Also with this win, the Hurricanes improve their playoff odds to a full 6%!  It’s not much but hey maybe Toronto starts to choke down the stretch.  It’s not like that’s never happened to the Maple Leafs before.